Yes, Yes, Yes ... Oh, You Get the Idea

This morning was yoga at 6 a.m. with the lovely yogini A. Do all yoginis talk in that same lilting sing-song-y breath-y way? I wish I could record it for you. It goes like this:

(UP TONE) Take your left leg ... (DOWN TONE) and wrap it around your head. Now...(long pause) ... (UP TONE)inhale ... (DOWN TONE) exhale ... (UP TONE) inhale ... (DOWN TONE) exhale...

It's right on the verge of valley girl, but never quite gets there because of all the pauses, and because A. is so soft-spoken and charming. The room is dark with a wall of windows facing ... a giant construction project (well, this is Bethesda, so that's pretty much the view from all windows, anywhere). She has candles lit. She walks around and gently "adjusts" you. As we practice, the sun slowly rises over the construction workers, who start working their asses off at the stroke of 7 a.m. (It's all very Charles C. Ebbets-ian.)


At the end, as we lay in "corpse pose" she reads some lovely thoughts from some inspirational yoga book. Which thoughts (about loving and peace and crap) I swear I will hold on to and I do! Right up until I walk down the street and into my office.

I dread this class at the start and then I don't want it to end. I do nonetheless sweat up a storm even if it's not Bikram. And everyone in this class is nice. Unlike in this class.

Anyhoo, you think I've been a wee bit cranky lately? You have no idea. In the first four days of the year, I managed to make one person at work cry, piss off two volunteers, and have a long yelling match with, oh, let's just say a certain family member.

Can I have a New Year do-over?

Fitness-wise, let's do a weekly recap:

Sunday: Ran 4 miles (my longest post-marathon run! I think the yoga is really helping!)

Monday: Insane strength class (see below)

Tuesday: Free yoga class at work with can't-remember-his-name-but-he-has-a-mohawk, and he's very very cool. (Kind of reminds you of Dances With Wolves, huh?)

Wednesday: Here's a new workout for you: I live across the street from a mall (settle down Runner Susan) which is bad enough, but the owners plan to expand it 500,000 feet, bringing 500,000 more cars and traffic to this godforsaken "neighborhood." The mall is buying the teensy strip mall across from my condo building— the only semblance of "neighborhood" we have. You can walk to get a paper, buy some milk, have a decent breakfast, drop off drycleaning, go to the bank. Delete! Evil mall-owners are replacing it with a 42 foot high garage that runs, oh, I don't know, the ENTIRE LENGTH of the street that I live on.

So there was a community meeting last night. To reassure us that really good stores are coming. Oh, and they are relocating the bus terminal (where all the buses in the county stop) as far away as possible from where the residents actually live. I live next to an assisted living building. Those people were really happy to hear about the bus relocation, let me tell you.

So you could say I got some exercise (or just got exorcised, ha ha) at that meeting last night.

Thursday: 6 a.m.: Yoga with the lovely A.; 4 p.m.: 4-mile run in 42F. And it was very good.

So, this week has been better! I haven't made anyone cry! (Yet.) That has now become my sorry barometer for whether my week is good or not.

Let's all take ... a deep yoga breath in ... and join me in exhaling...the unsound of

OM